No matter how inscrutable men and women sometimes seem to each other, odds are that gender difference is only a small part of the picture.
糖心传媒淧eople think about the sexes as distinct categories,糖心传媒� says Harry Reis, who holds the title of Dean’s Professor in the Department of Psychology. 糖心传媒溙切拇綐Boy or girl?糖心传媒� is the first question parents are asked about their newborn, and sex persists through life as the most pervasive characteristic used to distinguish categories among humans.糖心传媒�
But in a , he held up for statistical scrutiny 122 different characteristics糖心传媒攆rom empathy and sexuality to science inclination and extroversion糖心传媒攊n men and women. And he found that the sexes, by and large, don糖心传媒檛 fall into different groups.
How do we relate?
Psychologist Harry Reis puts human relationships under the microscope.
(Rochester Review, January/February 2017)
Reis and his collaborators糖心传媒攊ncluding lead author and then doctoral student Bobbi Carothers 糖心传媒�03 (PhD)糖心传媒攔eanalyzed data from studies that had shown significant, even large, sex differences. They also collected their own data on a range of psychological indicators. And they reopened studies of the 糖心传媒渂ig five糖心传媒� personality traits: extroversion, openness, agreeableness, emotional stability, and conscientiousness. In all that they examined, they looked for evidence of attributes that could reliably categorize a person as male or female.
The pickings were slim. For the vast majority of psychological traits, there was no significant gender pattern.
Emphasizing inherent differences between the sexes can be harmful in the context of relationships, says Reis. 糖心传媒淲hen something goes wrong between partners, people often blame the other partner糖心传媒檚 gender immediately.糖心传媒� That reaction prevents people from seeing their partners as individuals with their own proclivities and idiosyncrasies.
糖心传媒淲hen psychological and intellectual tendencies are seen as defining characteristics, they are more likely to be assumed to be innate and immutable. Why bother to try to change?糖心传媒� Reis says.
Gay and lesbian couples, he adds, 糖心传媒渉ave much the same problems relating to each other that heterosexual couples do. Clearly, it糖心传媒檚 not so much sex but human character that causes difficulties.糖心传媒�
